


Head Over Heels

by Measured



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Clumsiness, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2019-02-26 05:10:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13228752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured/pseuds/Measured
Summary: Sumia breaks something priceless, but dark magic can fix even the most dire situations.





	Head Over Heels

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SaraJaye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/gifts).



> [](https://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile)[hc_bingo](https://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/): Falling. I had a Sumia moment, leading to this.... for [](https://sarajayechan.dreamwidth.org/profile)[sarajayechan](https://sarajayechan.dreamwidth.org/) as I realized I owed her fic from a ways back.

One moment, Sumia had been admiring the statuette placed upon a pedastal, and the next, she realized her foot was caught in-between a small gap within the stones. Before she could right herself, Sumia found herself in an all-too-familiar place: flying through the air. And not with a Pegasus, either.

_Oh, noo!_

She reached out, but that only made the tower topple. Behind her, the statuette shattered into pieces. She'd broken many plates, jars--well, _many things_ over her lifetime, but she could only stare back in shock. She barely even noticed the stinging across her knees and hands. (Add her gauntlets and gloves to the recently broken things).

A plate was one thing, but that had been a statuette of Emmeryn. It was beyond priceless. She fought back a sob at the thought of how Chrom would look when he found out. He'd always been very patient with the fact that she could barely get through a meal without breaking something, and all the weapon she'd inadvertently crushed, bent, or rusted during her duties.

She tried to catch her breath, but the fall had left her feeling unbalanced, and even more dazed with the sheer immensity of what lay smashed across the stones of Ylissetol's castle. She might as well consider all her hopes and dreams crushed with this porcelain.

As she heard someone coming down the hall, Sumia looked up. She bit her lip, sure that whoever stepped farther would signal her doom. There were far too many pieces to pick it up, and she'd never be able to glue them all together. But, it wasn't a maid, but Henry whistling, dressed in dark purple, with a necklace of raven feathers around his neck.

He stopped to survey the chaos. Unlike Sumia, his expression wasn't of dismay, but amusement.

"Wasn't that--"

"Yes. Was is the key point here," Sumia said. It was now, after the shock had settled that the pain hit her. In pushing herself up, porcelain had embedded itself into her palms. She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. Chrom had always been kind to her, but this was one of the national treasures, one of the few remnants of his beloved sister. Thoughts of banishment, being dishonorably discharged, and sent to the wastes flooded her mind.

 _He's not like that, Commander Chrom wouldn't completely throw you out of the castle,_ she reminded herself. Still, they lingered, uneasily tightening at her chest.

"Good thing I can fix this, huh?" Henry said.

"Can you?" Sumia said. She gazed up. Hope finally trickled back into her. Like a knight in dark armor. Or a magician in no armor, that was more accurate, but books never had magicians as the striking hero. It came to mind that they _should_. Henry had just as much grace and prowess on the battlefield as Sir Esthard, knight sworn to protect the Maid Ma'ala, as chronicled in _Saved By The Knight_.

"But you'll have to come first!"

She heard him began a chant, in a language she didn't know. It started with a tingle in her fingers that went downwards, yet it was gentle, far more tender than she thought a curse would be. As if he'd slipped his hand in hers and squeezed softly. Each piece deep in came out. When each shard of white porcelain was free, her skin began to heal.

Like time reversing, the pieces began to swirl. They shuddered, and lifted up to float together. There wasn't even cracks in the perfectly reformed statuette.

If only Henry had been around at dishes disaster two years ago. She was still paying dish makers in Plegia for that one.

Sumia clasped her hands together. "You did it! I'm forever in your debt! I can't even imagine what would've happened if you hadn't come..."

Actually, she could imagine all too well.

"Forever? Bwahaha, that doesn't sound very long on the battlefield, or off, for that matter."

He was always so grim, but with a hint a humor deep within all his macabre talk of death. But, he reminded her of Tilstan, the mage from _Saved By The Knight_. Sadly, Tilstan had no story to call his own. Sumia had written many a note to the author, but the word was that mages simply weren't heroic enough.

She'd started to pen her own version, where Tilstan finally found the love he so rightly deserved, but it'd remained unfinished for a long time. Nothing seemed to quite fit the immensity of the character that had been so cruelly written off. And now, Sumia could feel even more inspiration. Had anyone ever been as heroic as a dark mage? Her fingers still tingled, as if she could feel Henry's hand in hers still.

"Hmmm. A smile would be enough," Henry said. "Or helping guard my back, next battle. Either or." He broke out laughing, and she couldn't tell if he was joking or not--with Henry it was so hard to tell.

"I'll do both," Sumia said. "I won't let anyone touch you in battle. Unless I accidentally hit you with my spear again."

"Then forever wouldn't be very long at all," Henry said.

"I-I didn't mean to!" Sumia said.

"Well, I'm not dead yet, but there's always tomorrow," he said flippantly.

They walked from the room, leaving behind all her foretellings of doom and loss. A shriek made her turn back, as a maid ran screaming past them.

"Whoops! I guess I should've told them about those curse effects."

She looked to her hands in growing dismay.

"Don't worry, it only affects objects. Sometimes it makes things smell like roses, or glow."

"So, no nightmares--or--er--other things?" Sumia said.

"Nope!"

Phew. For a moment, she'd wondered what Henry had unleashed. Imagine all the things she'd destroy with tentacles bursting from her hands. Even if it made clean up easier, she didn't think her Pegasus would like it.

"Is there any chance I can hire you to fix up things? I can't pay very much, because I'm always spending money to replace the things I break―but I'm sure I'll think of something. I'll---teach you how to ride a Pegasus, or something," Sumia said.

"Hmmmm. You'd have to pay with an awful lot of smiles. And maybe some hugs, for good measure!"

She burst into a smile.

"See, well worth it," Henry said.

 _If you're around, that certainly wouldn't be hard._ Sumia couldn't help but feel the heat in her cheeks at that sudden, unbridled thought. Where even had it come from? As she looked back to Henry, it only grew into more, so much that it spread out like a flower in bloom.

_You really are a knight–except you aren't at all, you're a mage—but you're honorable, and strong..._

And she smiled again, this feeling deep inside her, like dark magic across her palms. Repaying him would be no problem.


End file.
